Single-needle, lockstitch sewing machines designed for barring and tacking operations are widely used in the apparel industry for stitching flat buttons, bar-tacking selected fabric plies together in predetermined sections, and bar-tacking pocket corners for added reinforcement, among other applications. In conventional tacking, the machine operator is required visually to position the fabric to be tacked in a specific location before the tacking operation may proceed. Aligning and positioning the fabric plies to be tacked are time consuming, fatiguing on the operator and costly operations. Furthermore, a high incidence of imperfect tacking alignment may occur which will result in inferior quality garments.
Although many different edge guides have been employed in conjunction with various types of sewing machines, none has been found suitable for barring and tacking operations which will eliminate the aforementioned problems. Furthermore, many different stop means have been employed in conjunction with certain types of sewing machines, and various templates are employed in the garment industry, but none has been found suitable for positioning multiple fabric plies with any degree of precision for barring and tacking operations which will facilitate ease of operation and positioning by the operator with consistent uniformity.
Therefore, it is an objective of this invention to provide a device for a tacking sewing machine for positioning multiple fabric plies to be tacked at a predetermined location.
Another objective of this invention is to provide a tacking sewing machine having a presser foot and needle for tacking multiple fabric plies with a multiple fabric ply limiting means and a fabric guide means cooperatively associated therewith to guide multiple plies fabric to the stop means in juxtaposition with a presser foot.
Still another objective of this invention is to provide means which will enable a machine operator on a tacking sewing machine to align and position multiple fabric plies at a predetermined location accurately with minimum visual alignment to achieve maximum uniformity in tacking operations.
A further objective of this invention is to incorporate a combination stop means and fabric guide means on a presser foot to accommodate the positioning of multiple fabric plies for tacking thereby increasing production, improving quality and uniformity.
Yet another objective of this invention is to provide a method of tacking multiple fabric plies by guiding and positioning them at a predetermined location uniformly under a pressure foot.
Other objectives and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the sewing machine art from the following detailed descriptions of the drawing, a preferred embodiment and method of this invention. Although the invention is described specifically in conjunction with a bar-tacking operation it is applicable to tacking in general which is an arrangement of stitches made by a cam-controlled sewing machine for producing a predetermined pattern or design.